Page 23 | Official Complaint to Mumsnet

CoconutQueen · 2023-02-02T09:47:36+00:00

Totally inappropriate enormous vibrator adverts now ALL over Mumnset. What on earth are you thinking of? Is Mumsnet really that short of cash that they have to stoop this low? Not to mention the ridiculous woke language ie "people with wombs". Totally inappropriate on ALL levels.

MissFlitworth · 02/02/2023 19:00

penelopepea · 02/02/2023 10:09

As a woman without a womb due to hysterectomy I find this terminology extremely offensive. Not cool Mumsnet.

Agreed

YesitsBess · 02/02/2023 19:04

I agree @BoreOfWhabylon, I've been around these parts a while and unless the usual mods have been abducted by aliens this all smacks a bit of them firefighting something they warned would happen and were ignored.

Maybe they're all being threatened with being stroked on the face with Shrek ears until they comply.

And the bloody colour made no sense until I looked at the top of the screen today. It's fucking 'OP GREEN'! Like, you're going to be checking a thread and then like Pavlov's wanker, think, oooooooh Whispertime!

BoreOfWhabylon · 02/02/2023 19:28

I've been around these parts a while and unless the usual mods have been abducted by aliens this all smacks a bit of them firefighting something they warned would happen and were ignored.

Yup

WombsofWimbledon · 02/02/2023 19:30

What I think is hilarious about this, is that you could literally predict Mumsnetter's responses to it - whatever side / no side they're on, it's textbook down to the Volvo jokes. So why walk into it? How could you not see this response coming. Is it that this much talking about it isn't a negative thing because for all the outrage it's visibility and some sales? Even without the 'young men on The Apprentice' style marketing it's obvious the way this would go.

I'm 100% sure a focus group of say, just one of us, could have seen this coming enough to spoof write the whole thread. I can't imagine Justine not predicting it.

I mean - imagine the PR brainstorming:

'What products can we sell to Mumsnet's core audience? Anyone? Just throw the ideas out there, there's no silly suggestions! Damien! You look like you've got something to say!'

'Well... my dad got my mum one of those electric fan things on a lanyard for her birthday..'

'Yes. YES! Love it, Love it. Put it on a post-it Philomena, stick it in the Menopause section. Mumsnet X Davina! Come on then, what else - new mothers? Anna, you've just had a baby, can you turn your video screen on please, let's see those microexpressions! Yes Molly-Maie - what have you got for us?!'

'So, well, like, sex and pregnant people or like new baby havers, that's taboo right. And like self care is so important. So I was thinking maybe a sex toy so that new mu... vulva... havers.. can feel, like...empowered?'

'Now we're talking! Molly-Maie you're on to something! Damien, I want you to team up with Anna on her next keeping in touch day to come up with a proposal on this!'

ZeroFuchsGiven · 02/02/2023 19:39

BoreOfWhabylon · 02/02/2023 18:56

I'd be very surprised if @YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet and her moderating team weren't as appalled as the rest of us by all this.

As usual, they are the ones who have to deal with the (entirely predictable) outrage and general pissed-offness that this tone-deaf, illiterate, offensive, language-mangling, women-erasing nonsense has produced.

I couldn't agree more with this, thrown in the firing line as always, I would hate their job tbh.

CoffeeRightNow · 02/02/2023 19:40

WombsofWimbledon · 02/02/2023 19:30

What I think is hilarious about this, is that you could literally predict Mumsnetter's responses to it - whatever side / no side they're on, it's textbook down to the Volvo jokes. So why walk into it? How could you not see this response coming. Is it that this much talking about it isn't a negative thing because for all the outrage it's visibility and some sales? Even without the 'young men on The Apprentice' style marketing it's obvious the way this would go.

I'm 100% sure a focus group of say, just one of us, could have seen this coming enough to spoof write the whole thread. I can't imagine Justine not predicting it.

I mean - imagine the PR brainstorming:

'What products can we sell to Mumsnet's core audience? Anyone? Just throw the ideas out there, there's no silly suggestions! Damien! You look like you've got something to say!'

'Well... my dad got my mum one of those electric fan things on a lanyard for her birthday..'

'Yes. YES! Love it, Love it. Put it on a post-it Philomena, stick it in the Menopause section. Mumsnet X Davina! Come on then, what else - new mothers? Anna, you've just had a baby, can you turn your video screen on please, let's see those microexpressions! Yes Molly-Maie - what have you got for us?!'

'So, well, like, sex and pregnant people or like new baby havers, that's taboo right. And like self care is so important. So I was thinking maybe a sex toy so that new mu... vulva... havers.. can feel, like...empowered?'

'Now we're talking! Molly-Maie you're on to something! Damien, I want you to team up with Anna on her next keeping in touch day to come up with a proposal on this!'

😂😂😂

WombsofWimbledon · 02/02/2023 19:41

Based on this, I’m surprised they didn’t just make it in the shape of a mini baby bottle 🤦‍♀️

YesitsBess · 02/02/2023 19:43

And yet they went with Shrek. Everyone loves Shrek right?

IAmWomanHearMeRoar1 · 02/02/2023 19:51

It's not just the stripping women of humanity by reducing us to our sex bits, it's not just the paedophilic using baby bottles as bullet points on a VIBRATOR article, but they couldn't even get female designers, Mumsnet chose 2 men to do the job, that's the ultimate smack in the teeth, like as if these men would know 1 hundredth of a fuck all about womens vibrators and what women like. Then, to top it all off, they supposedly signed off on the pedo baby bullets and the dehumanising language.

And NOW pretend, simply because we (and they should have predicted this) kicked off that they care and are 'listening' to us. If mumsnet had listened to us for the last 5 years, they would never, ever, EVER have approved of it in the first place. Even chose 2 men (wtf were they thinking collaborating with men on this?!???), as well as approved the design/layout of the blurb. And the dehumanising wording. How could they not have seen this happen?

WombsofWimbledon · 02/02/2023 19:54

Recent scenes:

watcherintherye · 02/02/2023 19:58

Know your target demographic, MN. First rule of business - don’t piss your customers off. We’re more clued up than you seem to think we are.

SweetSakura · 02/02/2023 20:02

WombsofWimbledon · 02/02/2023 19:54

Recent scenes:

Marketing man "we're going to target this at mothers because of how sex is all taboo for mothers"

Actual woman "err no. We're just sleep deprived and covered in baby drool"

Second marketing man " let's add some baby bottles to the graphics too, just in case they forget that their entire identity is about babies now"

MotherandVolvoOwner · 02/02/2023 20:06

you could literally predict Mumsnetter's responses to it - whatever side / no side they're on, it's textbook down to the Volvo jokes. So why walk into it? How could you not see this response coming. Is it that this much talking about it isn't a negative thing because for all the outrage it's visibility and some sales?

This is what I can't understand. Who signed off a campaign that was so obviously objectionable on so many levels? And why? Was the whole intent to wind everyone up to get more attention?

YesitsBess · 02/02/2023 20:26

SweetSakura · 02/02/2023 20:02

Marketing man "we're going to target this at mothers because of how sex is all taboo for mothers"

Actual woman "err no. We're just sleep deprived and covered in baby drool"

Second marketing man " let's add some baby bottles to the graphics too, just in case they forget that their entire identity is about babies now"

Show quote history

What colour shall we make it boss?

Ummmmmm....dunno. What do we have a surplus of?

Oh, that green we made the knock-off Baby Yodas from perhaps? Loads of that knocking about boss.

Perfect! Everyone loves green! If anyone asks, say it's our most requested colour.

Riverlee · 02/02/2023 20:47

Thatshipsailed · 02/02/2023 16:44

Their website says that green is their most requested vibrator colour. I’m trying to fathom where this comes from! Do people (with wombs) message them ad-hoc asking for Shrek’s ear vibrators or have they asked 10 people in a focus group what colour they like?

I reckon they asked the Apprentice candidates!!

SalviaOfficinalis · 02/02/2023 20:50

Pastel green is the obvious choice.
It couldn’t be baby blue as the girl mummies wouldn’t want it, and same with pink and boy mummies.
Green is perfect for all mummies. Greige next please.

SweeSakura · 02/02/2023 20:57

Riverlee · 02/02/2023 20:47

I reckon they asked the Apprentice candidates!!

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I'd love to see Alan sugar's reaction to a business that decided to produce marketing material that targeted "vulva owners"

WombsofWimbledon · 02/02/2023 21:13

This picture has me imagining confusion at the next PTA Family Bingo Night. Sorted for tombola donation though.

Riverlee · 02/02/2023 21:40

Why isn’t this thread in ‘trending’?

ShreksEars · 02/02/2023 21:47

MN isn't in general, quick to apologise. Often they tell users to suck it up, so the speed at which they responded and then apologised does make me think that the moderators were firmly in the 'I told you so' camp.

TrashyPanda · 02/02/2023 22:13

discobrain · 02/02/2023 14:35

The wording is perfectly fine, it's inclusive and those offended really do need to get a grip.

-non binary person with a womb.

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I don’t have a womb.
i had a hysterectomy.
it doesn’t make me less of a woman.
that’s why “womb havers” is offensive.

why do you define yourself by an organ?
why not be “a person with a gall bladder”?

TrashyPanda · 02/02/2023 23:01

discobrain · 02/02/2023 14:42

Sorry to disappoint.

I do agree the toy looks like one of those air freshener wotsits though.

I wonder if that was on purpose? Designed for mums, so if it happens to be left on a mantelpiece, grandma might just think it's a Shrek based air freshener?

😬

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Do you think vibrators are a thing of mystery to older women?

or do you just think we are daft?

ThisWOMANWontWheesht · 02/02/2023 23:03

why do you define yourself by an organ?
why not be “a person with a gall bladder”?

Clearly being a woman IS important to them, and they want you to know they are a woman, despite their "non-binary" wank. If they didn't then yes, gallbladder would be as good an organ as any other.

LizziesTwin · 02/02/2023 23:10

I prefer the vibrators & lubes etc from the Netflix series starring Jane Fonda & Lily Tomalin. They invent a vibrator for menopausal women and are honest about women’s bodies.

monsteramunch · 02/02/2023 23:10

As @TrashyPanda explains well @discobrain, the language is absolutely not inclusive. Because not all natal women have wombs.

Why is their inclusion, when it comes to language, less important than that of trans people?

I'd love an answer to that question whenever you get a chance.